Breaking Down the Royals Schedule

A season ago, the Royals got off to a decent start before allowing the wheels to fall off in the month of May. Somehow the team was able recover and after a sterling 42-27 finish to the season, they closed the year with their best record since the days of Al Gore inventing the internet (I'm not exactly sure when this occurred, but needless to say it was a long time ago.)

On Friday, the Royals will begin their defense of the Cactus League title and once again we will hope that they can get off to a fast start in 2014. Fortunately, for the Royals it appears as though unlike a season ago the schedule makers appear to have done the Royals a favor in the early going. Here's a break down of opponent winning percentage by month:

• April: .471
• May: .458
• June: .513
• July: .519
• August: .507
• September: .520

Also, here is another way to look at the data of teams over .500 versus teams under .500 by month.

• April: 13 vs teams >.500, 14 vs teams <.500
• May: 7 vs teams >.500, 22 vs teams <.500
• June: 16 vs teams >.500, 11 vs teams <.500
• July: 17 vs teams >.500, 8 vs teams <.500
• August: 16 vs teams >.500, 13 vs teams <.500
• Septemeber: 18 vs teams >.500, 7 vs teams <.500

Overall, the winning percentage of Royals 2014 opponents is .497. So it does appear that they have been given a slight break. This is mainly because they play the Twins and White Sox 18 times a piece. 

The Royals will need to get out of the gate in 2014. If they aren't sitting pretty at the end of April and May, their final four months will make it difficult to go on a run like they did a season ago. Unfortunately, when the Royals do clinch their first playoff spot since 1985, they'll have to do so away from Kauffman as the Royals final seven games are on the road. Bummer.

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